Improvement in the construction of gas-generators



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NrTED STATES MAX PE'FENKOFER AND CARL RULAND, OF MUNICH, BAVARIA.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. Mlg, dated May 20, 1856.

To @ZZ z/ftont it may concern.

Be it known that we, MAX PETTENKOFER and CARL RULAND, of Munich, in the Kingdom of Bavaria, have invented a new and useful Apparatus for Making Gas from T/Vood or Vegetable Fiber; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description of our said apparatus, this description being conformable, so far as relates to said apparatus, to the original description and speci-y ication of our Bavarian patent for wood-gas making now on file in the Patent Ofce of the United States.

In the said specification of our Bavarian patent containing a description as well of process as apparatus we have separated the two matters as distinct subjects of patents, and we herein describe our apparatus as follows, reference being had to the accompanying drawing.

Our apparatus consists of a retort A for holding the wood for making the gas and of two regenerators B B B and B for subjecting the vapors when produced to a higher degree of heat than that contained in the retort. These regenerators are placed the one B B B on the top andthe otherrB underneath the retort, and are called the upper and lower regenerators, and are connected with each other by a pipe C. These regenerators are divided into chambers longitudinally by plates or dividing-walls and x of metal, and communicate with each other alternately at their ends, so as to form with the pipe a connected and continuous channel for the vapors to pass through from the retort to the exit-pi pe of the lowest regenerator, as shown by the direction of the arrows, and these chambers may be multiplied or diminished by increasing or diminishing the number of dividing-plates, the object of the chambers being to subject the vapors from the retort to a progressive higher heat by more extended and higherheated surface than that of the retort.

In the annexed drawing, the retort containing the vegetable ber or wood is shown at A, which is to be covered at the mouth by a plate D, as usual. This retort :is inclosed within suitable walls forming flues, or several may be placed side by side. The gases or primitive vapors pass through a short pipe E from the top of the retort into the upper regenerator B, in which the gas is compelled to travel backward and forward by dividingplates :t x', (seen in the drawing,) and from the back end of the upper regenerator the gas descends into the lowest regenerator B', and, having traversed it through its chambers, passes off by the exit-pipe H tothe purifying apparatus. rlhis lower regenerator, being under the retort, is between it and the re underneath. Hence a greater heat is communicated to the lower regenerator than to the retort which is above it or to the upper regenerator. The upper surfaces of the regenerator and of the retort are corrugated to furnish a greater amount of heating-surface, as shown in the drawing at y y y. The retort being heated to a dull-red heat, just sutcient to cause destructive distillation of the wood or ber in the retort, the regenerator which is placed on the top of the retort, having a larger heated surface and also acted more directly upon by the fire, receives and communicates to the vapors produced in the retort a heat somewhat higher than that in the retort, and the lower regenerator, being directly over the fire, is heated toa degree still higher than either that of the retort or upper regenerator, so that the heat becomes progressively increased to that higher degree that the products of the destructive distillation are decomposed and converted into permanently illuminating-gas, the tar and other products not previously decom posed and converted into gas passing oft by means of an exit-pipe into the hydraulic main.

It should be observed that it is not important whether the gas is brought out from the regenerator by the exit-pipe either at the front or the back end of the regenerator. The exit-pipe may be placed where it is most convenient and economical for drawing olf the gas from the last chamber of the lower regenerator. The gas may be conducted throng-l1 two, three, or more chambers in the regenerators, as maybe found most convenient, according to the form of the benches used in the gas-works and other arrangements.

The value and usefulness of this apparatus, and particularly of the regenerators with their many-chambered vessels, result from the nature and condition of the primitive vapors evolved in the retort from the wood or vegetable fiber, which require to be subjected immediately after they are so evolved to a heat higher than that required and used for their production, iu order to eect the chemical decomposition and resolution of their component parts which is essential for the proper making of permanently illuminating-gas from wood or vegetable ber.

Havingr thus described our apparatus, its nature, and use, what We claim as our invention and discovery therein, is-

The construction and arrangement of the many-chambered regenerators for making gas from Wood or vegetable ber, as set forth, whereby the primitive vapors of destructive distillation of Wood or vegetable fibers are progressively heated up beyond the heat in the retort, as herein set forth.

Augsburg, December '7, 1855.

MAX PETTENKOFER. [L s] CARL RULAND. [L S.] In presence of- HERRICH HINEMANN, ADoLPH UHL. 

